The Lemon Tree - The Painting Process

The Lemon Tree © Kate Lomax 2017
Oil On Linen Board.  All Rights Reserved

My first job was to decide which part of the tree to paint.  I didn't wish to capture the whole plant, as the lemons would have been tiny and looked quite irrelevant against the plant's bushy foliage.  So I mentally zoomed in on an area that seemed quite abundant, not only in foliage at all stages of growth,  but in fruit and flowers also.

I selected my two base colours thus: 

Mussini Translucent Yellow & W&N Turquoise

I then set about using charcoal to sketch my composition, to make sure my thoughts on the plant were going to work, eye appeal wise.  Once happy, I applied a wash of Turquoise to set the charcoal.

The composition begins with the leaf in the top left corner, moves across
to the lemon pointing down to direct the eye down, to swing
across to the largest leaf in the bottom left corner, inviting
the viewer to  a complete tour of the canvas.

Happy with my sketch and undercoat, I moved on to my first stage of colour, which is, at this stage, very elementary.  I don't want to complicate the process by applying too much paint.  Keep it fine and build wet into wet as the Alla Prima technique demands.  Too thicker paint will create stress should you need to move the paint for fine adjustments.  

First Stage Colour

I used the Translucent Yellow to mark out the leaves and lemons.  Note, where the Turquoise and T. Yellow have merged a gorgeous light leaf green has been created.  This can be deepened with more blue, or lightened with more yellow. Look at the image, Second Stage Colour (below) You can see where I have deepened and lightened the colour.  At this stage I wanted to see how many greens I could create using my two colours plus Mussini Titanium White.

Second Stage Colour

Third Stage Colour

Third stage colour involves creating a depth of field with the colours you are using.  Remember colours become clearer and deeper as the object nears the front of the viewing field.  I also dropped in the positioning of the white lemon blossom here, and first stage highlighted some of the leaves and the lemons.

Fourth Stage Colour

Fourth stage colour is really pulling together your hues and tones to create a dance between the colours.  I call it 'the zing'.  Deep in the plant there are leaves which are quite dark, that would have dumbed down the painting, so, using artistic licence, I lifted them a little.The larger, more mature leaves on the left have ridges, the younger leaves have not necessarily developed these yet and are very similar to bay leaves in their early life.  In the part of the paint, I added detail such as stamen, buds, veins, lemon skin irregularities, such as dimples.

Fifth (final) Stage

In this final stage of painting, I added the tiny bud casing, the stamen on all of the blooms, the viens on the leaves,   and, mindful of the light and shadow values, I had kept the plant on a side table next to my easel the whole time.  Lacking now in daylight, I turned my daylight lamp on and placed it where the sun would be in relation to the tree.  I then made my final light corrections, prior to working on the green bark of the tree.  I used a tiny speck of Ultramarine Blue on the darker leaves, and to enhance shadow.  Lemon Yellow on the highlights of the leaves completed the paint.

The Lemon Tree plus Tutorial. © Kate Lomax 2017. All Rights Reserved.

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